SAVAGES

by Shirley Conran ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 1987

Here, Conran offers up a Lace (1982) soaked in blood, a messy, extravagant, sadistic exotica whose dynamite premise (five corporate wives fighting for dear life in a cannibalinfested jungle) sets a prototype for a whole new brand of thriller: the women's adventure novel. Conran opens with the same glitz that sparked Lace's blockbuster appeal, as five spoiled wives of top execs of the giant Nexus Corp. bitch their way through a party for the firm's retiring CEO. (Not one for deep portrayals, Conran's ladies are as stale as last year's best-seller: there's the sexy blonde, the athletic California girl, etc.) Characters set, Conran shifts to a wild island off New Guinea, where, ostensibly on group vacation, the husbands do dirty business while the women take in sun and surf. All this makes for a long setup; but just as the story starts to drag seriously, Conran has the women and their macho sailing captain, Jonathan, return from a sail to see the men massacred by troops--victims of a coup d'État. Horrified, ladies and Jonathan flee into the jungle. Now the real fun begins--almost. The band takes refuge in a cave--later building a camp--and through several months and 200 curious but not overly exciting pages, Jonathan teaches the women survival skills (some patches here resemble a Gift Scout manual), nurturing the savage heart in each. Fortunately, Conran punches up the lessons with a few heartbreaking turns of fate as the group tries and fails to escape the island (they fear the new dictator who killed their husbands) and with brisk bursts of violence as the women learn that they can kill (an errant soldier, a luckless native). But she also slows the action, by cutting often to Nexus's local exec., who's trying to mount a rescue, and to the island's crazed leader, who's trying to mount a second massacre. Again, just as the story winds down, Conran lobs in a major (if forseeable) twist: Jonathan dies. At last the women are on their own! Will they live to sip champagne again? Will they be raped and eaten by cannibals with bones in their noses? Will they descend to cannibalism themselves? Will Conran finally deliver the goods? (Not quite). Not what it could have been--the plot hesitations, the bland characterizations, the stolid prose: all lessen the impact. But the chutzpah of the premise, the appeal to readers' deepest fears, and the steady undertow of danger overpower the flaws. Scheduled as a TV miniseries, this clever exercise in reader manipulation is likely to spawn a brood of imitations, and to attract an enormous audience.

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION